You don’t have to be Lance to ride a mountain bike

My wife, Kate likes to tell folks about me on a mountain bike, “Yeah Scott, he just jumps into something headfirst without thinking.” It’s true, I don’t really think a lot of times and will plunge into something and it has both bad and good results. Bad results would include me going to do the mountain bike race known as the Cohutta 100 while not being prepared for such a hefty task. The result? Well, I bonked and cramped really bad thus preventing me from finishing the race.

But then there are positive things that happen too

Just get on that mountain bike!

I bought an entry level mountain bike at Cahaba Cycles and was told “there’s a group ride on Thursday…” So I decided I’d go – I didn’t know anyone, I just made up my mind I’m going. The only person I kind of knew was this person named Macy Gravis and she was so snotty that she barely would talk to me (come to find out later she was just terrified to be on a bike and was prone to falling alot so she was too nervous to talk).

I showed up and pulled out my mountain bike noting that everyone else had these big fancy smancy mountain bike rides with all sorts of bells and whistles on them. I had no idea what all this was and it was very intimidating.

We started the ride around the trails and I was doing good just to keep up (although I was doing better than Macy, she got lost and ended up

Lance Armstrong

somewhere in Alaska). There came a place in the trails where everything seemed to go up and I got dropped from the group. Out of shape and not knowing how all this mountain bike stuff worked, I pushed my bike up the hill where I found the group in a big circle around the trail.

I knew it. The mountain bike welcome wagon had stopped for me to applaud my climb up the massive 1% grade hill that went on for yards. I had not been on out there for an hour and I was already regarded as a Mountain Bike King!

Except that wasn’t the case.

The group screamed “STOP! Hammer time” and then yelled “SNAKE!”

Coiled up surrounded by mountain bike folk was a 4-5ft rattlesnake. He was wrapped up tighter than a knot, in the middle of the trail and pretty freaked out by the freaked out mountain bikers.

In high school I made it to Eagle Scout and enjoyed educating myself about snakes growing up (I know, weird) and so I knew a few things on what to do about snakes which mainly was “get the hell away from them so you don’t get bit.“

I told everyone to just back off and see if he’d slither away. He didn’t. So I got a stick and nudged him away from all the mountain bikers of which he didn’t like but finally got the picture and started to slither away.

I turned around to the group with the people I’d barely known less than an hour and smiled saying “see!? Snake problem gone!”

Except that wasn’t the case.

Is that a snake returning or are you just happy to see me?

Apparently this snake wasn’t done yet and had turned around and started slithering towards the mountain bike folks. Perhaps he forgot his iPhone, or wallet or just wanted to tell everyone “Hello!” again..I don’t know (but I bet it was his iPhone, I lose mine all the time and have to go back looking for it).

Everyone screamed and one girl was trying to scale a tree. Actually she did scale the tree and come to find out Macy was up there too. She’d somehow wrecked her mountain bike and ended up in the tree. I just don’t understand that girl.

So I took my stick and sort of wrangled him back into the woods where he finally slithered off and disappeared for good.

Yeah, not funny Scott…

Years later all these people are my good friends now and we still laugh about that snake encounter. Okay, I laugh about it…the girl that scaled the tree still has a weird twitch in her eye when you bring up snake or if a baby has one of those rattler toys.

So how is this a good mountain bike experience? Well it was memorable to begin with and it was something to talk about later on with everyone as well. Talking is good, talking opens up the doors to become friends and friends I did make. Because of those friends I got in shape, learned more about my mountain bike and here I am about to embark on one of the toughest rides I’ve ever done, the Trans North Georgia Adventure that’s 350 miles and 56,000 feet of climbing.

Metaphorical Mountain Bike

Okay so maybe a mountain bike is not your bag. I got it, maybe you’re a roadie person or maybe you just want to play chess. But the thing to remember is sometimes careful planning and not taking a risk is a good thing. If you’re gut is telling you something, you should probably listen to it. But if you’re longing to do something and are just timid about it, why not try? What’s the harm? Just jump in headstrong and try! You may not be Lance Armstrong but you’ve needed to be him to ride a mountain bike…

…and have fun.

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I'm an graphic designer who loves biking no matter if it's road, cross or mountain biking. I love it all. I live in Birmingham, Alabama and design t-shirts, work for companies like the Wall Street Journal and teach as an associate professor at two of the local Universities.